Jeez, maybe abortions should just be made illegal already.

not serious about that, btw, but some of these Bills are getting so extreme that they are becoming dangerous. this one, in particular, clearly goes too far. i'm not sure what it's called, but isn't their some kind of Privacy Act that would make this unconstitutional?

this Bill serves absolutely no purpose, other than to bully and scare abortion providers to stop doing so, or to pack up and leave - thus leaving women without an in-state option.

the most obvious and frightening repercussion should this Bill pass is the endangerment of the employees of these doctors. the Tennessee Right to Life group must certainly know this, and frankly, i doubt they give a shit. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if they hope that violence occurs. they wouldn't be brave enough to do it themselves, but i'd wager that deep down they know that acts of violence would strengthen their cause.

this is one more reason that i don't believe Santorum when he says that his faith wouldn't guide his policies. his ilk are legislating their faith at the state and local level. a President Santorum would not only sanction the actions of these backwards states, but would likely promote many of their ideas on the national stage.

one quick aside - what an unbelievably shitty job it must be to have to pander to idiots for a year to try to get elected. the only silver lining i can see in it is the opportunity to be the smartest guy in the room.

Replies to This Discussion

The joining of religious fundamentalists and the right wing of the US government causes this weird obsession with sexuality (contraception, abortion, homosexuality). It's very disturbing how obsessed these politicians are with other people's privates.

the scary part is how blinded they are by their righteousness. they believe so deeply that abortions are the most evil thing ever invented, and should be prevented at all costs.

there are lots of things that i think are horrible. i think war is horrible. yet it is not realistic to think that the human race will ever be free from war. same with abortion. it's a terrible thing, to be sure. i had a girlfriend who had one, and it was a terribly difficult time for us both. yet to think that outlawing abortions would stop them is like thinking that Prohibition would stop people from drinking alcohol.

I can imagine the horrors. It wasn't all that long ago that we were without Roe v. Wade. Before abortions were legal and provided by reputable physicians, women had back alley abortions or self abortions, both of which resulted in numerous deaths.

Granted, I think the use of abortion has gotten a little out of control, but I think the more reasonable answer is to push contraception harder. I think that almost everybody knows someone who has had an abortion. Personally, I know of at least 4 women who've had an abortion. It is VERY difficult. Much more difficult to live through than the small lack of pleasure that arises from the use of a condom.

agreed, with one small caveat. in today's world, with the internet, we would SEE the horror stories play out in a very visceral way. prior to RvW, everything was word of mouth or maybe in the newspapers. you could easily turn a blind eye to those back alley abortions. not so easy anymore.

The use of contraception is under attack too. It's not just about overturning RvW anymore, although abortion is the star in the crown of the religious right-wing misogyny. The ugly face of their underlying hatred of women and female sexuality is fully revealed in their now unceasing attacks on all forms of contraception. If they just wanted to reduce abortion, they would be all about making access to contraception easier. They're not. And although the decision to terminate is not as psychologically easy as, say, the decision to get a tattoo removed, it's certainly less emotionally difficult (and less physically risky) than carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term, giving birth, and giving the baby up for adoption or raising it to adulthood. And easiest of all is to prevent it by ensuring access to birth control.

Agreed Dorris. They talk about the government "forcing" religious institutions to give birth control to those that work for them (that aren't of their faith) as being unconstitutional, but in the same breath what they are trying to do is create governmental policies that are based upon their own religious beliefs (aka, forcing their religion upon everyone that is supposed to have the freedom to practice their own beliefs). I don't think that they understand the concept of separating their own personal feelings about things from enacting policy.

Yeah, it's called HIPAA, and it limits the parties to whom medical providers can release a person's medical records or information. Usually these are limited to "need to know" parties such as the patient, other medical providers involved in the patient's care, and the patient's insurance company. I can't conceive of a way in which revealing a person's medical history to the public would comply with this law....oops, I guess I was assuming that these Tennessee legislators consider women to be "persons", like men or corporations. Silly me.

This is in essence criminalizing abortion - by treating women and their medical providers the same way sex offenders are treated, namely by publishing their names and addresses. This will make it so handy for the "moral" vigilantes, won't it? They'll have all the information they need to do everything from putting dogshit and bags full of fake blood and plastic fetuses on doorsteps to blowing up mailboxes and doing drive-bys to shooting and bombing the homes of women, their families, and their doctors. Way to blaze a trail to a more civilized society, Repubs. Did mommy have a few too many jugs of mountain moonshine while pregnant with these cretins?

I guess everyone in Tennessee must have jobs and paid-up mortgages and solvent bank accounts and great healthcare access (except for those icky women, of course), because they don't seem to be worried about anything but women and what they do with themselves.

They're all just scintillating examples of how out-of-touch with reality Republicans are. They don't even get what all the outrage is about, and now are engaging in full-blown projection, claiming that somehow it's all Obama's fault.

Only, it's unfortunate to be the smartest guy/gal in the room because these people do not understand reason or facts. They only have religion to cling to and use as a crutch and shield. Sadly the religious platform of politics is all too popular and we can see by how many uninformed and brainwashed people went to the polls to vote for Santorum... "If only God were back in control, our country would be on the right path". What they could learn from their own religion is that their god isn't interested in doing everything for them. Their bibles even say that "faith without works is dead", yet they seem to think that all they have to do is believe and it will happen for them. Kind of like that video that Alexandra Pelosi did in the south where she tells the guy that voting Republican hasn't helped him yet and he said "No, but it could". This same man also admitted to being on Food Stamps, but refuses to take a hand out. This kind of thoughts are just mystifying to me.

You're so right. Many of these fine, upstanding christian folks really don't know their bibles beyond the most popular verses that just about everyone knows. They don't read it, and they only know what their pastor tells them about it; he's the last word on what to think, believe, say, do and who to vote for. There was a recent survey that showed that most atheists know the bible better than christians of any stripe (it's a big reason why many became atheists!).

It really is telling when you look at the circumstances many of these southern bible belt dwellers live in and ask them what God has done for them lately - not a whole hell of a lot more than Republicans have! That video you referenced was really pathetic, wasn't it? These people really can't even see what's wrong when it hits them in their poor, toothless, malnourished faces. And for every few hundred poor, disadvantaged, uneducated shack-dwellers there's a fat, white, rich Republican pig bloviating about how it's all gonna be all right if they just keep on bending over and voting Republican - that makes it so's they ain't really takin' a welfare handout, they's just stickin' it to Big Government and the libs! Yep, South gon' rise again - just as soon as they git they shit back into one sock again! Jesus Jumped-Up Johnnycake Christ, that's so frigging pathetic it just makes me despair.